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Maker’s Monday: Sculpting Challenge

Who is hyped that Maker’s Monday is back!

If you don’t follow me on Facebook or Instagram or the million other social accounts I have, let me tell you that life socked me in the face recently. Arizona Renaissnace Festival was a whirlwind that I am just now recovering from.

Custom orders are back logged until June 15th.

The website, blog, online shops, and stream have been hideously neglected.

It is all good things, but it is a weird juggling stage right now. I have applied for additional Renaissance Festivals and am eagerly waiting to hear back. From the comments of the director I should be at the North Carolina show this October. Fingers crossed!

Now, back to this Maker’s Monday post! Today I took a sculpting challenge that I had heard about and I was really shocked at the results. For a long time I have been wanting to get more into portrait sculpture. I have given myself a really hard time about not being a ‘real sculptor’ since my work has a cartoonistic style.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I make.

However, it’s time to up the ante.

The challenge this week: Sculpt an ear with no references other than touch. Don’t look at any photos, don’t pull out any casts, no mirrors, etc. You may feel your own ear with your fingers and then use that tactile knowledge to translate it into clay!

Oh, and do it in five minutes or less.

Here is my 5 minute ear:

Color me surprised.

I have never sculpted as ear before. I have watched videos on portrait sculpture before but it was always too intimidating. I looked at it and thought there was no way I could do that. I would tell myself I didn’t have that kind of talent.

Since I was pleased that my 5 minute ear looked in fact, like an ear, I decided to take it one step further. I photographed my ear and went to work with my 5 minute ear as the base to see just how close I could get.

The second time around I gave myself 30 minutes so I could really take my time and focus on the task at hand. I could have gone longer but I drew the line at 30. It still isn’t perfect but I never thought I could get something this nice looking out of my clunky little fingers!

The moral of today’s lesson is to get out of your comfort zone.

You don’t know if you can do something until you do it. Also, start at the basics. Work in small chunks. Let’s say it does turn out a disaster, so what? You’re learning. Give yourself a break. Have you seen the video where Ed Sheeran plays a song of him singing at 17? Yeah, you’re 17 year old Ed Sheeran. It’ll all be okay.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

The more I stretch myself with art, be it painting, sculpting, or singing, the more I realize that there is no such thing as talent. I truly believe the whole ‘talent’ think is just an illusion we create to stop ourselves from doing things.

I hope some of you will take this challenge, stretch your limits, and see what you get. Keep in mind if you do and you are not pleased with your ear, maybe it doesn’t look as good as mine (I do this to myself endlessly comparing myself against other artisits, so I get it), remember that I have been sculpting in water based clay consistently for 15 years. You read that correctly 15 years. While I may not have sculpted an ear before or tried portrait sculpture before, I have a database of knowledge about shapes, blending, and molding clay. I also have a stash of tools and gadgets to assist.

What will you challenge yourself with this week? Let me know in the comments!